Teaching may be one of the most difficult jobs in the world, with expectations and demands coming from all sides. Teachers juggle content standards, the social and emotional needs of students, behavior, and often trauma, but they also are the first line of defense when students have mental health problems.

Teachers are often the first person children turn to when they are in crisis, and yet they are, as a profession, woefully unprepared to identify students’ mental-health issues and connect them with the services they need—even when those services are provided by schools.

“Turning Around Trauma” by Jonathan Sapers was published in the Fall 2015 edition of Scholastic Administrator. The article, which features TLPI Director Susan Cole, examines how some schools are working to support students impacted by the trauma response.

Meredith Kolodner writes about high schools which are successfully decreasing suspensions and expulsions through trauma sensitive practices that address the reasons for a student’s behavior in her article, “How Schools Can Lower Suspension Rates and Raise Graduation Rates”.